THE current horse-meat scandal seems to be unending, with a plethora of arguments emerging both for and against the use of an extremely un-British ingredient in our food.
A number of references to the ongoing burger debate have arrived in Roamer’s in-tray, some rather amusing, but a most unexpected link with the controversy was sent to me that is poignantly rooted in history, and has strong associations with Northern Ireland!
“The greater part of Scott’s journal is concerned with the progress and welfare of the ponies,” wrote George Seaver in his authoritative account of Captain Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic.
“References to the ponies (in Scott’s diary) are too numerous to quote,” stated Seaver. Inniskilling Dragoon Captain Lawrence Oates was Scott’s horse manager on the doomed mission, and he was devoted to the ponies. From the start of the treacherous journey, leaving by ship in 1910 and then across a freezing landscape in 1911 to near its end in 1912 “every precaution was taken,” said Seaver, “to secure the most possible comfort for the ponies.”
The beleaguered team of exhausted and frost-bitten men built snow-walls to shield the animals at night, even before erecting their own flimsy tents.
“The weather is about as poisonous as one could wish,” Scott noted in his diary, “and the ponies look utterly desolate.”
An awesome exhibition of photographs depicting the final months of the expedition is currently on view in the Chris Beetles Photograph Gallery in London, taken by Scott’s photographer Herbert Ponting.
The gallery has kindly sent Roamer one of the historic images entitled ‘Captain Lawrence Oates and Some of the Ponies. December 1912.’
The fate of these poor creatures throws a different light on the current horse-meat debate! When the expedition reached the Antarctic, Captain Oates did his best to maintain the health and welfare of his animals but the relentless sub-zero conditions and screaming blizzards took their toll.
The ponies were “killed one by one as they became less fit, for food to men and dogs,” Scott wrote in his journal.
Oates’ plucky little ponies saved the day, for the time being at least. They were cooked and eaten by the explorers and their dog-packs as they struggled onwards towards almost certain death. Having lovingly tended to the animals, their Inniskilling Dragoon horse-manager succumbed to the frightful elements.
“Oates must know that he can never get through,” wrote Scott on March 10, 1912. On March 16, the hopelessly frostbitten Oates ended his agonies, recorded by Scott in his journal on March 17 - “He slept through the night before, hoping not to wake, but he awoke in the morning - yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said ‘I am just going outside and may be some time.’”
Oates’ last words entered the annals of history, as did Scott’s failed expedition. But it would probably have failed earlier, and with greater loss of life, if they hadn’t eaten the Inniskilling Dragoon Captain’s beloved ponies. Scott’s last diary entry was on March 29.
“We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.”
Over 60 of Herbert Ponting’s photographs taken during the legendary expedition are on show in the Beetles Gallery, described as ‘the largest and most varied exhibition of Ponting prints ever staged in London.’ Full information and more Ponting images are on www.chrisbeetlesfinephotographs.com